3.2Doctoral research at Flemish universities

By Eva Steenberghs (UGhent) and Alain De Beuckelaer (UGhent)

This chapter provides an overview of doctoral researchers with a research appointment at Flemish universities, their funding, success rates and the number of PhD degrees awarded in Flanders.

Most results presented in this chapter originate from the database Human Resources in Research Flanders (HRRF, update 2018-2019) that monitors the research population in Flanders since 1990-1991. However, the results with respect to the PhDs obtained and the international position of Flanders originate from the Flemish education statistics (https://onderwijs.vlaanderen.be/nl/statistisch-jaarboek), Eurostat and ECOOM UGent.

The number of doctoral researchers increased steadily over time. In 2013-2014 more than 2600 researchers started a PhD. The number of starters fluctuates around 2500 in every subsequent academic year. The share of women has increased steadily, but their share remains below 50% (except for 2006-2007 and 2016-2017, where their share reached 50%). The share of foreigners doing doctoral research has also increased. Asian and EU researchers account for much of this increase. Presently, three quarters of the new doctoral researchers are bursary or scholarship recipients.

To calculate the PhD success rate, we consider the extent to which PhDs were completed within eight years after starting the PhD research. The PhD success rates have increased from 46.5% among researchers starting in 1990-1991 up to 70.3% among researchers who have started in 2010-2011. Success rates are relatively high in natural, applied and medical sciences and lower in the human and social sciences. Presently success rates among doctoral researchers from European countries and North-America are comparable to those of Belgian doctoral researchers, but success rates among doctoral researchers from Central and South America, Africa and Asia are higher.

The median duration to achieve a PhD is 4.7 years; the duration used to be highest in humanities and social sciences but is converging towards the median duration.

These changes have led to a threefold increase in the number of obtained PhDs during the past 25 years. Up to now, the highest number of PhDs awarded was observed in 2017-2018. In 2023-2024, the most recent year for which we have data available, 2538 PhDs were awarded. The Flemish innovation potential has caught up with other EU countries, such as Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Switzerland remains the leader in terms of innovation.